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This is a great virtual autopsy activity for a Forensics course or unit on pathology or anatomy. Students visit a website that has 18 different examples of autopsies with lab results for each body system. Students record all relevant information and then try to determine the cause of death. This can be used as an introduction to the unit, as an activity within the unit, or even as a great sub plan! Best part, we don’t have to view a real autopsy!
Here is the link to the website used in the activity: http://www.le.ac.uk/pathology/teach/va/titlpag1.html
The following handouts are available from my store for a very low price. Click here to get the handouts.
Virtual Autopsy Student Handout (MS Word File)
Virtual Autopsy Student Handout (PDF)

My students love this project, even seniors who are nearing the end of their high school days! Each file is included as both a PDF and Word document so you can customize as needed. Please comment your questions, suggestions, or successes!

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Campbell Biology 9th edition is a widely used textbook in both AP Biology and college freshman biology courses. Thankfully, the text comes with some wonderful reading guides to accompany each chapter. I have my AP Biology students use the following guides as they read each chapter. It is a great time saver for students since they don’t have to take detailed notes on their own!

The AP Biology Book Club was created as an interesting way to introduce my students to the science writing genre. The College Board recommends that students in an AP Biology course read nonfiction works and other outside reading to get them beyond the textbook. There are so many great books to choose from, I found it hard to select just one or two. So, I decided to let the students choose! The logistics of the book club are evolving but I am happy with the results so far. Here is how the AP Bio Book Club is working for us.

Students Select From a Reading List

I have created a list of 6 titles that I give to students prior to the course for summer reading. I teach at a small high school and have a small class size for AP Bio so I start with only 6 titles. If you have larger classes you may want to expand the list. I like to have at least 2 students who have read the same title so that I have 2 ‘experts’ when we discuss it. Before the students leave for the summer I have them select one or two titles to take home with them and hopefully read over the summer. Titles are listed in the course syllabus.

The Format is Informal

I’ve been involved in a few book clubs personally and my favorite ones are the informal ones. I understand that I am the teacher and this needs to be a valuable learning experience so I keep a few goals in mind:

Introduce students to the ‘Science’ genre (there’s even a whole section at the bookstore!)

Link the book that we are discussing to the AP Biology Big Ideas

Link the book that we are discussing to as many specific science concepts as possible

Relate the concepts in the book to our daily lives

Pedagogy

From a teaching perspective, the book club is implemented with two tasks. First, a set of guiding questions are given for each of the books. My course is delivered via a hybrid model so in our online course I’ve created a book club section. Students can find a short description of each book to help them choose which one they want to read, and can also access the guiding questions for each book. An online discussion board is set-up only for the students reading a particular book. They can discuss the book and the guiding questions as they prepare for their book discussion in class. They can also collaborate on their book club discussion if they doing a special presentation, skit, debate, etc.

Second, a class discussion of the book takes place at some time throughout the school year. The timing of the discussions has been a challenge at times. Some of the books are fairly specific as to which topic they should be placed with for discussion and they are easy to place within the curriculum schedule, but others span several topics areas. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing! It is often an opportunity to make more connections across Big Ideas.

When the class discussion of a book is going to take place, the student ‘experts’ take center stage. The discussion is scheduled in advance and I meet with the students involved to determine what they would like to do for their book discussion. It is helpful if more than one student has read the title being discussed, but if there is only one we can still have a good discussion with that student as the leader. This is where the students get the opportunity to create visuals, gather other resources, videos, demonstrations, etc. We use the guiding questions as the guide for the class discussion but I explain to the students that they are just the foundation, and the students who have read the book have the opportunity to create any other kind of presentation around them that they choose.

Assessment

The students put a lot of time and effort into reading and discussing the book club books. They prepare to be the discussion leaders. And even the students who didn’t read the book must be active listeners and participants in the book discussion. They may not have read the book, but they ARE knowledgeable in the topic!! Each student receives a score for being the discussion leader, and each student receives a score for being a book club discussion participant by completing a quiz on the concepts discussed in the book.

How Many Books?

The first question students ask, “How many books do we have to read?” At this point, only one of the books is required reading for my course. A second one is extra credit. This could change. We all get a little overwhelmed with all that is AP Biology and books in the Science genre are not considered beach reading or fluff. Plus, while each student is required to read only one, they are thoroughly discussing six. Have you ever gone to a book club meeting where you didn’t finish the book? You still got the gist and maybe the discussion was still valuable, right?? And we will read plenty of case studies and a few science journal articles before the course is over as well.

I’m interested in how you incorporate outside reading into your AP Biology courses. What are the titles you enjoy most? What titles do you find most valuable? What titles do students enjoy? Help me out, I could use some inspiration 😉

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This document is like an extension of myself, it took so long to create! I’m sharing it in the hope that it will save some time for you, and also as repayment to the teachers who posted their AP Biology syllabi online for me to use as a resource as well. Thank you!!

This syllabus is approved by the College Board and follows the newest AP Biology Curriculum Framework. I’ve linked it as a pdf and as an editable Word file so you can adapt to your needs and schedule.

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This PowerPoint presentation and student note guide handout contains 29 slides introducing Biotechnology and an 11-page handout for students to fill in during the lecture. I have used it with Biology classes and Forensics classes. It includes the explanations of restriction enzymes, gel electrophoresis, PCR, recombinant DNA and transformation, genomics, and proteomics.
This presentation with class discussion would take 90 minutes or more in my classroom, depending on the depth of discussion. The student note guide is included as both an editable Word document and a PDF file. The powerpoint file is also editable!